How The New Contract System Works

Updated on: 7 February 2024 7:12 pm

Published at: 1 September 2001 12:00 am

In the existing system, each player is paid Rs 40,000 per Test and Rs 25,000 for a one-dayer. The board also shares 60 per cent of the logo money paid by Sahara with the players. Accordingly, all players share Rs 30 lakh per Test and Rs 25.8 lakh per odi.

A player like Sachin Tendulkar thus earns about Rs 1.07 crore a year. This is only about six lakh more than a player like Debashish Mohanty who spent most of last year on the bench.

But under the new contract system, a top Indian player will earn anywhere between Rs 1.70 crore and Rs 2 crore a year while a player at the bottom stands to earn between Rs 30-40 lakh.

Because, in the new system, a pool of 20 players will be formed and divided into three grades—A, B and C—based on their performance in the last one year.

A guarantee money of Rs 60 lakh will be paid to Grade A players, Rs 30 lakh to Grade B and Rs 15 lakh to Grade C. They would receive this money irrespective of whether they play or not.

The contracted players selected for a match will also get an appearance fee—the variable depending on his experience. The "most experienced" will earn Rs 2.5 lakh per Test and odi while the least experienced will get Rs 80,000 per Test and Rs 75,000 per odi.

The contracted players, who are not included in the playing 15, will not get any appearance fee.

The team will get a bonus of Rs 10 lakh, to be shared equally among all players, for winning a Test, Rs 6 lakh for winning an odi and Rs 15 lakh for winning a Test or one-day series.

Under the new system thus, a Grade A player stands to earn anywhere between Rs 1.7 to Rs 2 crore every year, up from a little over Rs 1 crore he earns now.